More Tribbles, More Troubles (episode)
While escorting a shipment of grain to Sherman's Planet, the Enterprise encounters three "old friends": Koloth, Cyrano Jones and tribbles! Summary :"Captain's Log. Stardate 5392.4. The [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|''Enterprise]] has been assigned to escort two robot grain ships to Sherman's Planet, which has been struck by crop failures and famine. This shipment of grain, quintotriticale, is necessary to the survival of the colonists. We are breaking course to Sherman's Planet to investigate what appears to be a Klingon battle cruiser pursuing some kind of smaller ship. Observation may confirm a rumor that the Klingons have a new weapon -- type so far, unknown." Sulu confirms that the vessel is a Klingon ship, rapidly closing in on its target, a one-man Federation scoutship of common design. Captain Kirk hails the Klingon battle cruiser after it begins firing on the scoutship, demanding that they identify themselves. After receiving no response, Kirk orders the Enterprise to pursue at warp 6. While the Enterprise attempts to get within transporter range, the scout-ship continues to dodge several volleys of Klingon weapons fire. Kirk again demands the Klingon battle cruiser to identify itself, stating that it is violating Federation space. The battle cruiser attacks the scout-ship with another volley of weapons fire, and Kirk orders the Enterprise to raise deflector shields and to arm all phasers. The Enterprise increases to warp 8, still demanding that the Klingon vessel stand-down. The cruiser continues to fire on the scout-ship as Scotty transports the occupant just as the scoutship explodes. Meanwhile the Klingon cruiser turns its attention to the Enterprise. The Enterprise automatically goes to red alert moments before the Klingons utilize their new weapon -- identified as some sort of field effect that produces a most remarkable disruption. As a result of the first shot, the Enterprise's engines go dead -- further analysis of the weapon determines it to be a projected stasis field, which paralyzed the Enterprise by disabling its matter/anti-matter generators. Kirk attempts to return fire, but the ship's phasers, as well as its photon torpedoes are also disabled. Spock concludes that the weapon is capable of disabling all higher order field and warp functions. Spock surmises that this new Klingon weapon must be one of surprising power if it can immobilize a starship and that the energy drain on the Klingon ship must be enormous. Scotty, meanwhile, is still attempting to materialize the scout-ship pilot, who is still stuck in mid-transport, due to interference from the Klingon attack. The Klingon ship, commanded by Captain Koloth hails the Enterprise. Kirk demands to Koloth to release his ship; Koloth, in turn, demands that Kirk hand over the scout-ship pilot. However, because the craft was Federation-built, its pilot is under Kirk's protection. Koloth explains that he has committed ecological sabotage, and that if he has to take him by force, he will. Uhura breaks in and informs Spock and Kirk that she is losing contact with the robot-ships because they were moving out of range, having not been affected by the stasis field. Realizing that they still have control of the ships, Kirk breaks off communication with Koloth and orders Sulu to bring them back -- have them ram the Klingon ship. Spock reminds Kirk that he cannot afford to lose that grain, but Kirk can afford less to lose the Enterprise. Kirk re-establishes contact with Koloth's ship and demands, once again, that he release the Enterprise. Koloth cuts Kirk off, as Kirk orders the two robot-ships to approach Koloth's ship at different angles. Koloth catches on to Kirks plan and fires the stasis fields at both approaching ships; his ship's power is now overextended, as it is attempts to hold three ships at once in stasis. Suddenly the stasis field releases the Enterprise and Koloth's ship fires at one of the robot-ships, disabling the ship by destroying its nacelles. Koloth's ship veers off, as their power cells are almost exhausted. With the Klingons gone, Scotty is finally able to re-integrate the scout-ship pilot in the transporter. Dr. McCoy, Spock and Kirk arrive in the transporter room just as the pilot materialize, revealing -- Cyrano Jones, and a transporter pad full of tribbles! :"Captain's Log, supplemental. Our rescue effort has given us some knowledge of the new Klingon weapon -- and the presence of Cyrano Jones, intergalactic trader and general nuisance. Jones greets "friend Kirk", only to get a bitter reply about breaking the law by transporting animals proven harmful. Jones declares that these are safe tribbles -- as they are incapable of reproducing. Jones had them genetically engineered for compatibility with humanoid ecology. .]] Kirk inquires as to why he left Space Station K7, knowing full well he could not have cleaned up all the tribbles there. Jones reveals that he found some help, a tribble predator, called a "glommer". Kirk then inquires as to why the Klingons were chasing him, to which Jones replies: "How should I know? Klingons have notoriously bad tempers." Kirk brought up Koloth's mention of "ecological sabotage", to which Jones stumbles around until he confesses that he sold tribbles on a Klingon planet, but claims not to have known that it was a Klingon planet. Kirk states to Jones that according to Federation computer files, he was in violation of three Federation mandates and forty-seven local ones. Kirk confines Jones until they complete their mission, after which, he will be turned over to the proper authorities. The senior staff conducts a meeting where McCoy confirms Jones claim that they don't reproduce -- stating, "they just get fat." Kirk's greatest concern, at the time, however, is the new Klingon weapon. Spock explains that it is an energy-sapping field of great strength. It immobilizes a starship and its weapons capability, but apparently it also immobilizes the attacking ships abilities at the same time. Despite the practical disadvantage the weapon poses to the Klingons, it does have logical applications. The key question is: "How long does it take to recharge?" Fearful that when the Klingons return they will attempt to destroy the other robot-ship, Kirk inquires to the status of the first damaged ship. Scotty notes that they have transported all the grain off the ship and onto the Enterprise, severely limiting them. Her shuttlebay, extra cargo holds and corridors were overfilled with barrels of grain. Back on the bridge, the ships sensors detect the Klingon battle cruiser once again. Kirk orders the other robot-ship to change course and act as a decoy as the Enterprise begins evasive maneuvers. The Klingon cruiser veers off and attacked the robot-ship, disabling its nacelles as well. The cruiser changes course back to the Enterprise, and fires upon her. As a result of the attack the grain barrels in the corridors of the ship break open. The tribbles, roaming freely around the ship begin to eat the grain that has spilled into the corridors -- growing immensely fatter in size. Too large, in fact, for the glommer, which is also roaming freely through the corridors, to effectively devour the tribbles. The Enterprise returns fire on Koloth's ship, which quickly withdraws. With the second robot grain-ship also disabled, Kirk is forced to use a tractor beam to tow the vessel. Spock fears this was Koloth's intention all along -- as he forced the Enterprise to expend additional power to tow the robot-ship. Scotty warns Kirk that that is not his only problem, as the tribbles were eating all the grain in the corridors from the broken containers. Alarmed, Kirk requests that Cyrano Jones is to report to the bridge immediately. Jones arrives on the bridge and innocently offers Kirk some Spican flame gems. Kirk explains that his tribbles are all over the ship and that his security men cannot find them all -- and worse, they are eating all of the quintotriticale. Koloth's battle cruiser once again returns, forcing Kirk to release the robot-ship and prepare for battle. :"Captain's Log, supplemental. The Klingon ship, under command of Captain Koloth is forcing us into a battle for custody for Cyrano Jones, for reasons still unknown." The Enterprise fires a photon torpedo moments before Koloth fires his stasis field. The field and the torpedo cross paths, and the torpedo is destroyed and the Enterprise becomes caught in its path as well. Koloth once again hails Kirk stating that he will be taking control of his ship now -- demanding for the release of Jones. On board Koloth's ship, he orders Korax to implement "Boarding Plan C". Meanwhile Kirk orders Scotty to implement "Emergency Defense Plan B". Just as the Klingon troops approach their transporter room the door bursts open and the room fills with enormous tribbles that had been beamed over from the Enterprise. Kirk hails Koloth one last time and asks if he wishes to surrender. Koloth, unaware of what action had been taken against his ship, once again rejects his request. Suddenly an enormous tribble rolls through the bridge. Koloth breaks down and explains that the reason they want Cyrano Jones so bad is because he stole a Klingon genetic construct, an artificial creature from a Klingon planet -- the first of its kind. Koloth demands they have the glommer back as it was designed to be a tribble predator -- noting that they are even prepared to go to war if they have to. Koloth explains that they need it in order to grow more from it so that they may rid the Klingon planet that Jones sold tribbles on before they completely over-run it. Kirk concurs with Koloth's request and orders Scotty to transport it over to the Klingon ship as well. Jones objects to Kirks request, stating that under space salvage laws, the glommer is his, however, Scotty notes that a planet's surface is not covered by these laws. Upon receiving the glommer, Koloth's ship releases the Enterprise. Despite their encounter with the new Klingon weapon, Kirk establishes that the stasis field is not as effective of a weapon as they thought. The power drain is too high, and it takes too long for the Klingon ship to recover to make it practical. McCoy, meanwhile, makes a further analysis of Jones's genetically engineered tribbles only to determine that is was a slipshod procedure at best. It seems that he was only able to keep them from reproducing, and did not slow down their metabolism at all. It was determined that these "giant" tribbles, were in fact, large colonies. Onboard Koloth's ship, the crew attempt to use their recovered glommer on the tribbles infesting their engine room. The door opens, and an enormous tribble stands blocking the door. At the sight of that, the glommer quickly bolts down the corridor in the opposite direction. Koloth orders Korax to blast it with his disruptor, and it explodes into dozens of smaller tribbles. Back in the Enterprise's corridor, McCoy uses a simple shot of neoethlyene to force the tribble colonies to break down into their individual units with a slower metabolic rate -- ensuring, once and for all, truly safe tribbles. Kirk looks up a Jefferies Tube, tells McCoy that he missed one, McCoy tells Kirk he didn't miss it, and before Kirk can say anything else, he is again buried in tribbles. Kirk just stands there, up to his armpits again in Tribbles and can only lament, "Someday I'll learn." Scotty then tells Kirk that if they must have Tribbles around it's best if all their Tribbles are little ones. Memorable Quotes "You know the law about transporting animals proven harmful." "Captain, these are safe tribbles." "There's no such thing as a safe tribble." "A safe tribble would be a contradiction in terms. Tribbles are well known for their proclivity in multiplication." "And they breed fast too! That's why these tribbles are safe. They don't reproduce." : - Kirk, Jones, McCoy, Spock, and Jones (again) "This is a tribble predator. It's called a glommer." : - Jones "You... sold... tribbles... on a Klingon planet." "Well I didn't know it was a Klingon planet." "Tribbles don't like Klingons. That should have given you some clue." "Klingons like tribbles even less." : - Kirk and Jones "The first Klingon to step aboard this ship will be the last Klingon. Full security alert, Mr. Spock." : - Kirk Background Information * Along with Mark Lenard ( ) and Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd), Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones) is one of only three actors, besides the regulars, to play the same character on both this series and Star Trek: The Original Series. He first portrayed the character in . * The Klingon captain Koloth was seen in this episode and was originally seen in . Koloth was played by William Campbell in the original series but was voiced by James Doohan in animated form. William Campbell did later reprise his role of Koloth in . * The Klingon insignia is introduced in this episode and would later be used in all subsequent Star Trek productions. * The Star Trek Concordance states that Koloth's ship in this episode was called the IKS Devisor, but the name did not appear in the final aired episode, suggesting that the name possibly came from an early script draft or some other behind the scenes source. The ship is also referred to as the Devisor in Alan Dean Foster's adaptation of the episode in the Star Trek Log 4 anthology. It is also possible that Koloth was still in command of the , the unseen Klingon ship from (and later identified by name in ). * In "Trials and Tribble-ations", Jadzia Dax claims that Koloth once claimed he regretted never facing Captain Kirk in battle, even though his ship fights the Enterprise several times during this episode. However, at the time the DS9 episode was produced, The Animated Series was still considered to be mostly non-canon. However, given that a TAS reference had been worked into , it remains unclear if this is a continuity error or not, but it might be explained away by arguing the "battle" in this episode was not properly a battle, in that Koloth was trying to retrieve the glommer rather than destroy the Enterprise. Or Koloth was actually regretting not having fought Kirk in a face-to-face duel, like his friend Kang did instead, for instance, in the episode . * The Star Trek: The Animated Series DVD booklet and DVD menu list the stardate for this episode as 5329.4; the stardate that Kirk gives in his captain's log is "5392.4". * This episode was a sequel to David Gerrold's own . Unlike in the TOS, the tribbles in this animated episode were all the same color: pink. The director, Hal Sutherland, was color-blind, so to him, pink was light gray. The Klingons in this episode wear pink tunics for the same reason. For this same reason, another episode, , un-intentionally featured a pink spaceship and put the Kzinti into pink uniforms. * In his commentary for this episode on The Animated Series DVD, David Gerrold states that the story for this episode was originally submitted for the third season of The Original Series, but was rejected by third season producer Fred Freiberger. Mr Freiberger disliked the comic tone of "The Trouble with Tribbles", and did not want to go down that road a second time. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (CIC Video): Volume 1, catalogue number VHR 2535, . *As part of the ''The Animated Series'' DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars * Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones * James Doohan as Koloth * David Gerrold as Korax References Arex; Federation scoutship; genetically engineered; glommer; Klingons; Klingon battle cruiser; Klingon Empire; neothylene; projected stasis field; quintotriticale; robot grain ship; Sherman's Planet; Spican flame gems; Deep Space Station K-7; tribbles |next= }} Category:TAS episodes de:Mehr Trouble mit Tribbles fr:More Tribbles, More Troubles nl:More Tribbles, More Troubles